Gov. Tom Corbett on Monday defended having top campaign aides attend meetings with state-paid workers in the governor's office, and he compared the practice to getting advice on a major transportation spending package that passed in November 2013.

"When we did the transportation bill, we had advisers from the industry, from ... labor, from business sitting at a table talking to me there," Corbett said. "I collect the information before I make decisions."

Corbett made the comments during a campaign stop at a New Standard Corporation facility in Manchester Township.

Corbett said having campaign officials attend meetings is different than what he, as the former state attorney general, prosecuted lawmakers and staffers for doing.

"In the investigations that we did, state money was being used to run campaigns," he said.

Corbett said those cases involved state employees on state time running political campaigns, the use of state resources to fund campaigns and fundraising being conducted from the Capitol. He said he hasn't done those things.

"The most important thing that everybody should recognize is no state dollars were involved," Corbett said.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported last week that Corbett met with top campaign advisers in the governor's office multiple times since taking office in January 2011.

Corbett said when the campaign officials attended the meetings in the governor's office they weren't planning the campaign.

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"I wouldn't even dare think of doing something like that," he said, later adding that politics occurs at a Capitol building. "But you can't run your campaign using taxpayer dollars. And I've made that a bright line. Everybody knows that."

He called the issue a distraction.

Allies of Democratic gubernatorial nominee Tom Wolf have criticized Corbett over the issue.

Mike Mikus, spokesman for a committee supporting Wolf, called Corbett's Monday comments "bizarre" and said they don't "pass the smell test."

"Tom Corbett put people in jail for using state resources, so he should know that what he is doing is wrong," Mikus, with the Campaign for a Fresh Start, said in a news release.